Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/21

 great University truth, that Arts rest on Morals, and that if you would be wise and learned, the pure heart is as necessary to the successful pursuit of Science and Art as the high and unclouded intellect.

SECOND CONVOCATION.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Members of the Senate,—I am glad to be able to meet the Senate in this their Second Convocation, and again to congratulate them on the progress which the University has made during the past year.

I find that of 143 caudidates who presented themselves at the Matriculation Examination, fifty-six passed, which is a far larger proportion than that of last year, when only thirty passed out of 134 candidates.

I am glad to see no less than twenty Parsees among the successful candidates, but I must remind them that they are still fewer in proportion than their Hindoo fellow-students, and that we must have more Parsee candidates, and they must be more successful before they can make good their claim to a full appreciation of the benefits of this University.

I am glad, to congratulate the. Directors of the Bombay Proprietary School on the appearance of their first successful students at the Matriculation Examination, but here I must qualify my congratulations by again reminding them that much more is justly expected of them than they have yet effected. The constitution of their school presents many admirable features, it numbers among its students the sons of some of the richest and most respectable Parsee gentlemen. It is I believe entirely self supporting, and the proprietors, with, as it appears to me, very sound judgment, retain its entire management in their own hands. We might justly expect from such a school, if not the largest numbers, certainly the largest proportion of candidates for admission to the University, and of competitors for University honors, and I trust that the young student who has now appeared among us will be but the first of many sons of our Parsee worthies who will vindicate by their career at this University their aspiration to be considered as one of the most enlightened communities in British India.